ON BASEBALL

ON BASEBALL; To Mets' Chagrin, Galarraga Is Back

By Murray Chass

Published: June 30, 2000

Last year, he was the Missing Man. Nowhere in any of the six games the Mets and Atlanta played in the last 10 days of September or the six games they played in mid-October did his name or body appear in the Braves lineup. But he's back this year, and the Mets didn't need much time to realize they didn't miss Andres Galarraga.

''Yeah, he did sit out one year, but he makes that lineup that much better,'' said Rick Reed, who last night became the first Mets pitcher to feel Galarraga's rejuvenated power. ''They've always had a tough team. Adding him to the mix makes it that much tougher.''

The prodigiously productive first baseman missed last season because he was receiving treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. That he has returned to play this season at 39 following a year off with such an illness is remarkable enough. What he has done for the Braves has transformed him from the Missing Man to Miracle Man.

''It's a phenomenal story,'' Bobby Cox, the Braves manager, said. ''He's been phenomenal all year. He's the guy. He's been our m.v.p. the first half. He's had so many big hits, big hit after big hit after big hit. He got us going and he's still keeping us going.''

It doesn't take much intellect or baseball intelligence to figure out the problem Galarraga poses for the Mets. If they couldn't beat the Braves without him last year, how can they expect to beat them with him?

Last season the Mets fell short of the Braves in the regular season, then fell short again in a stirring six-game National League Championship Series.

The teams had not played since Game 6 when they met at Shea Stadium last night, and the outcome was no different from the 1999 results. The Braves won, 6-4, in a game that featured the return of John Rocker. The fans vented their feelings toward the Braves' reliever, booing him lustily when he darted to the mound from the bullpen at the start of the eighth inning and at every other opportunity during and after that inning. But their lust couldn't produce the runs the Mets needed to prolong or win the game.

Galarraga had given the Braves the cushion they needed.

Exhibit A: Galarraga comes to bat in the first inning with Chipper Jones at first base and two out. He drives a sinking line drive to center that Jay Payton seems to think he is going to catch. Payton reaches down, but the ball, as if on cue, ducks under his glove and skips past him, bouncing toward the wall as Jones races home with the first run of the first game of the season between the teams. Galarraga chugs into third with his first triple of the season.

Exhibit B: Showing he did not expend all of his energy with his 270-foot first-inning romp, Galarraga comes to bat in the third inning after a pair of two-out singles by the Jones gang (Andruw and Chipper) against Reed and swats Reed's first pitch to him over the right-center-field fence. The 2000 rivalry between the Mets and the Braves is less than three innings old, and Galarraga has given the defending National League champions a 4-0 lead.

What was he doing, trying to make up for missing their games last year? ''He's the type of guy who can do that in a big game,'' Cox said. ''Those were two bullets. He was ready to go tonight. He had a rough game last night, but he came right back and had some great swings.''

Minutes before the home run, Reed was whacked on the left wrist by a wicked line drive hit by Andruw Jones. Reed would later learn that he fractured a bone in the wrist and would miss who knows how many starts that the Mets can't really afford to have him miss. Did the injury somehow affect the pitch he threw to Galarraga?

''I wasn't bothered by anything,'' Reed said. ''I just made a mistake and he hit it out of the ballpark.''

That's what makes Galarraga so dangerous. Pitchers can't afford to make mistakes. He can turn them into victories.

Fortunately for the Mets, Galarraga did not extend his one-man onslaught beyond the third inning. Each of the next two times he batted the Braves had two runners on base, but Pat Mahomes struck him out in the fifth inning and Eric Cammack dittoed that in the sixth.

Cammack's strikeout was the third out. Mike Piazza only thought Mahomes's strikeout was.

Galarraga batted in the fifth inning with runners at first and second and one out. After he swung and missed for strike three, he headed back to the Atlanta dugout. At the same time Piazza headed to the Mets dugout, his back to the field. The catcher thought there were three outs. By the time Mahomes ran to Piazza and reminded him he was ahead of himself, Andruw Jones had sneaked to third.

After Piazza recovered his senses and his position, Brian Jordan bounced a single up the middle, driving in the Braves' fifth run for a 5-2 lead. So even when Galarraga appeared to do nothing, he contributed. Maybe Piazza figured that after what he did in his first two times at bat, a strikeout in that situation was worth two outs.

The Mets scored some runs but not enough to overcome the start Galarraga provided. They will not sweep this series, as if anyone thought they had a chance to do that.

''The reality of it is when you face the Braves, you're looking to just win the series,'' said Al Leiter, who is scheduled to pitch against the Braves tomorrow. ''In a four-game series, even a split would be good. It beats getting swept.''